Service Advisory: LIRR Double Track Construction Enters Final Weeks, Leading to Increased Reliability, Service on Ronkonkoma Branch

Construction on the Long Island Rail Road's crucial Double Track project along the Ronkonkoma Branch in Suffolk County is entering its final weeks this August, and will require some temporary weekday peak and off-peak service changes starting Monday, August 6, through Friday, August 10, on the Ronkonkoma, Babylon, Far Rockaway, and Port Jefferson branches. Please see the full details via this link, or view them below.

LIRR Double Track Construction Enters Final Weeks, Leading to Increased Reliability, Service on Busy Ronkonkoma Branch

Construction on the Long Island Rail Road's crucial Double Track project along the Ronkonkoma Branch in Suffolk County is entering its final weeks this August, as the LIRR continues important infrastructure work at several locations across the system, including with Positive Train Control on both the Port Washington Branch and the Atlantic Branch.

MTA Long Island Rail Road crews will perform track work related to Positive Train Control testing on the Atlantic Branch this weekend, July 28-29, 2018, necessitating service changes along the branch that connects Jamaica, Queens and Brooklyn.

Starting Friday, July 27, at 11:29 p.m., service between Atlantic Terminal, Nostrand Avenue, East New York and Jamaica will be suspended until 5 a.m. Saturday, as both tracks on the Atlantic Branch will be out of service to allow for the work to take place.

Long Island Rail Road President Phillip Eng today announced that the LIRR plans to lengthen the platforms at Forest Hills and Kew Gardens by 50 percent, to accommodate six cars of a train, from the current four.

Both stations have two side platforms north and south of the tracks. The railroad will extend both platforms at Forest Hills and both platforms at Kew Gardens 200 feet westward using steel scaffolding structures supporting fiberglass decking.

LIRR Care: New Program to Better Serve Customers Who Need an Extra Helping Hand

MTA Long Island Rail Road President Phillip Eng announced the launch of a new service -- LIRR Care -- that will serve as a customer assistance program for people with mobility issues who need assistance accessing or navigating the railroad system.

This on-call service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, including holidays, to help customers with mobility limitations who require assistance to board and/or exit from a LIRR train. This service is available to, but not limited to, seniors, and people with disabilities, including those who use wheeled devices.

Long Island Rail Road crews will perform important infrastructure work this weekend, July 21-22, 2018, along the Port Washington Branch's Manhasset Viaduct. LIRR engineering crews will work on the viaduct as part of the railroad's biannual maintenance of the bridge's track timber, which are fastened to the structure, and ensure the bridge's continued stability.

Starting this month, crews building East Side Access to connect the Long Island Rail Road to Grand Central Terminal will relocate hundreds of feet of tracks in Sunnyside, Queens, by several yards to create space for an entrance to a newly built tunnel to Grand Central, and will perform related reconfiguration and reconstruction of track switches.

The new tunnel to Grand Central, which has been built underneath Sunnyside Yard, will carry eastbound and westbound trains that will connect with the LIRR Main Line at Harold Interlocking in Sunnyside.

Long Island Rail Road crews will continue work on the Double Track Project in Suffolk County this weekend, July 14-15, 2018, between Hicksville and Ronkonkoma. This work will require buses to substitute for train service between these stations.

MTA Reaches Major Milestone with Replacement of Harold Interlocking Signal System

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) today announced that the work to upgrade the signal system in Harold Interlocking in Sunnyside, Queens, has been completed, providing an immediate benefit to Long Island Rail Road customers and clearing the way for the start of the final East Side Access construction contract to begin work later this year.